The summer period is not only a time of harvest, but also a time for dairy females to compete in arenas all over the country. This year's season began in May of this year with the Regional Dairy Cattle Exhibition in Ułęż and the Lubuska Breeding Cattle Exhibition (18-19.05.), and will end with the Gorlice Dairy Cattle Exhibition, which will take place on the last weekend of September this year (28-29.09.). In total, 20 dairy cattle exhibitions will be held throughout the country over the course of five months. Each of them is unique, one of a kind, but the greatest emotions accompany the nationwide competitions.
National Exhibition of Breeding Cattle in Bratoszewice
This year, herds from all over Poland visited Bratoszewice in Łódź, where the National Cattle Breeding Exhibition took place (the females from this exhibition are presented in a separate article in the "Cover Topic"). Thrills are also caused by the competitions in the regional rings, where breeders have the opportunity to compare their females to those from state breeding farms.
Read more
7 champions and one super champion among heifers in Bratoszewice
Breeding cattle – excellent and economical
Breeding and raising cattle is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, jobs you can choose. It is a 24/7 job. Selecting cattle is laborious and takes years. The breeding goals that breeders set for themselves are improved by successive generations of constantly improving animals. However, breeding work is crucial for long-term success in dairy cattle breeding, which in turn is extremely important for profitable milk production. Excellent animals that are presented by breeders in the rings are also high-yielding animals that live longer and longer. Of course, genetic progress has accelerated thanks to genomic technology, but the trained eye of a breeder has been and will continue to be valuable. Assessment of conformation traits therefore remains an important genetic tool for improving dairy cattle, supporting primarily the improvement of the longevity and health of females.
Read more
Animal transport regulations need a smart compromise
List of 2024 Super Champions from previous exhibitions
Judges who evaluate cattle at exhibitions have long emphasized – when discussing their choices – that beautiful females walking in the rings are also functional cattle, not just for show. That is why the assessment of female type and build is still performed by advisors from the Polish Federation of Cattle Breeders and Dairy Producers, which is performed in primiparous cows between the 15th and 300th day after calving and in cows in further lactations from the 15th day after calving. PFHBiPM employees assessed a total of almost 30 thousand cows in 2023, including 1.4 thousand females in the second and further lactations. Such assessment was made in 1.6 thousand barns. In addition, they made almost 200 thousand selections for matings and collected 40 thousand biological tissues for genotyping.
Read more
Show judge: This cow could fight for the European Super Championship
The animals that compete at exhibitions are undoubtedly the breeding elite of our country, which is covered by the aforementioned activities of breeding advisors. The breeders who exhibit them in the rings can certainly be said to be people with a vision, who have long ago focused on profit from breeding and milk production, but they are also people whose passion is working with cows.
Super Champions of National and Regional Dairy Cattle Exhibitions in 2024 (Farmer)
